Returning to the Oilers line-up on Monday night’s game against the San Jose Sharks, Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid recorded his 100th assist on the season.
He is now the fourth player in NHL history to have 100 assists in a single season. Bobby Orr did it in the 1970/1971 season, Mario Lemieux did it in the 1988/1989 season, and Wayne Gretzky did it an absurd 11 times in his career. McDavid achieved the milestone after setting up Zach Hyman on a 2v1 rush. It was a blowout win for his team, but it took their 9th goal to get him that one assist. He would’ve done it earlier in the year were it not for his injury, and he sat out the last three games with another nagging injury. At least he did it now. His smiles on the bench after it happened were contagious and the crowd reaction to the announcement was, as expected, louder than any other at Rogers Place.
In Tampa Bay, Nikita Kucherov is sitting on 99 assists himself. He’ll have one more chance to hit the 100 assist milestone on Wednesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Four 100 assist players is great, but may there perhaps be five of them when the regular season is over?
